Expedition Mindset

Expedition Mindset

Written by: PH Editor

If you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, if you’re curious about your surrounding environment and how it is evolving, and if you’re open to changing the way you’re doing what you’re doing if the conditions necessitate, you’ve got the right mindset in place.

Expedition Mindset

Ok, so last time we spoke about a huge transition that is currently underway: it’s the transition to VUCA, a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. The concept of VUCA is pretty well known in the northern hemisphere right now, particularly amongst North American and British businesses, but not so much down here in Australia.

The old world was the one where we thought we had everything under control, it was a world that was seemingly stable, certain, simple and clear. We knew what we wanted, we knew where we were going and we knew how we were going to get there. This gave us a sense of comfort.

The new world is markedly different, and your old assumptions about where you are going and how you are going to get there are probably currently being challenged. This gives us a sense of discomfort.

The basic premise of VUCA and what it means to you and your organisation is that we need to accept that VUCA is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. Once we accept that it’s here to stay, we can then start working on becoming more comfortable with the concept, and identifying how we will modify our behaviors to adapt to this constantly evolving landscape.

As I’ve said previously, we need to get comfortable getting uncomfortable.

To be able to do this, you’ve gotta get your house in order, and you’ve gotta get the basics right.

To start with, this includes having two things:

1. the right mindset

2. the right approach

Although I touched on it last time, I’m keen to reinforce it again (because it’s so damn important), starting with mindset.

I reckon the right mindset is the one of the Explorer, which is based on the concept of being driven, agile and curious. It looks like this:

If you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, if you’re curious about your surrounding environmentandhow it is evolving, and if you’re open to changing the way you’re doing what you’re doing if the conditions necessitate, you’ve got the right mindset in place.

Now do a quick assessment of yourself and of your organisation. Can you answer yes to each of these three questions? If you can, you’ve got your house in order.

If not, decide which one you think is the most important, and go from there. For most people, it’s knowing what your drive and motivation is. Get this right, and the other two will be easier to identify.